GOOD MONDAY

Book club was so good last night. I got to meet jojo's friend, Wil from the Dominican Repbulic. He seems so nice. I always marvel at those who speak 2 languages. He endured us talking fast and gossiping. He's from the Domincan Republic so I can only imagine what he was thinking while we were jibber-jabbering!

We are reading "A Heart-Breaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers. It's a memoir. I like it because he is sardonic, self-effacing, and uses humor to deal with tragedy. Dave is about my age so I can relate to a lot of what he's writing about. For instance, he auditioned for the first cast of MTV's Real World. He didn't make it, but the whole subject made for very interesting conversation last night. Why do we blog? Why do we put things on Facebook that we would never tell people in person? What is it about "being real" that we only feel safe doing on cyber space? And is that truly reality? (aw geez, I sound like Carrie Bradshaw now...) I believe this is a multi-facted issue. Some of the factors are: children (yes, including teenagers) come home to empty houses after school, more people are in urban areas where a sense of community may be lacking, people just want someone to listen to them, and churches are not community hubs anymore. I think all of this leaves people feeling extremely lonely and vulnerable. In many ways, it's "safer" to have an email conversation than one person-to-person. It lends itself to a disconnected connectedness, or as I would call it, a false connectedness. Anyway, I love conversations like this and my book club friends are awesome to talk with!

We had a birthday cake for Leeeeeeeeza. It was delicious! Jenny From the Block made it. It was white cake with white filling and white frosting. Think Leeeeeeeeza has a thing for all things white?? If you only knew...... Then we had strawberries to cut the sweetness of the cake. The frosting alone was 2 cups of butter and EIGHT CUPS of powdered sugar! Holy sweetness, Batman. But oh so good!

All of the goodness from yesterday has spilled over into today and I am feeling really good. Tonight, I'm singing at the Beavers game. I gave them a list of demands: a star ryder, if you will. Thankfully, they saw the humor in it and said they would drop everything to accommodate me. I told them everything is as it should be! Here's a copy of the ryder. Please to enjoy...

• A golf cart to take me from the side area to the field (air conditioned, of course)
• The scent of gardenias to go before me, wherever I go.
• A 2 quart bowl of pistachios. IMPORTANT: all of the shells have to be partially cracked. It is unacceptable to have a pistachio shell that, try as you might, won't come open because it's not properly cracked.
• A personal attendant to take my chewing gum before I sing and to give it back to me after I sing.
• 4 feather pillows for my seat, as well as a protective canopy so that adoring fans won't bother me.
• Unlimited 1-liter bottles of Diet Coke, hot dogs, & ice cream desserts.
• A wardrobe attendant to make sure I don't have any wardrobe malfunctions.